Which Bass Amp to play live?

the time has come and I really need to decide which combo is the most appropriate for my musical intentions.

The thing is:

With my long-time friend (he's playing electric guitar) we want to start playing live on a smaller appearances like vernissages, weddings, jam sessions etc. where I expect to be from around 50 to 100 people max (he has a Crate 65W combo).

We want to play mostly jazz & blues occasionaly blues rock and rock tracks. Drums and piano will play as a jamtrack from MP3 so aux is really needed.

I'm looking for a solid, easy portable combo with really good sound and the ability to play bass and jamtracks together.

It's going to be my first amp, i haven't got any experiences yet, so i woud be very glad if you could help me to decide. Here's my tips, but I'm open to any other recommendations :

That'll be enough name calling and fingerpointing at drummers, or anyone.
If I came back in this thread to remind you all of rule one, or, quoting posts that break rule one, I'll deal with it differently than just cleaning it up.

OP, if you guys want to do the 2-man + backing track thing any of the combos mentioned would likely carry your bass well enough. I'd be more concerned with it getting a good "real sounding" representation of the drum and piano tracks.

I'd most likely be loking at a little more "full-range/neutral" sounding setup, or a small PA system.

I'd at least take your looper or laptop or whatever you're using for the backing tracks with you and check out that sounds in some different amps. If there are vocals happening as well, you'd also be doing yourself a favor checking out some smaller powered mixer + speakers PA systems. Kind of in between a rock and a hard place there in finding something that'll do justice to the bass and kick sounds, and sound nice with the backing tracks at the same time without getting into some expensive stuff.

What I'm trying to say up there is a lot of small PA systems aren't going to have enough booty for a good bass and kick sound without adding a small subwoofer to them and a lot of bass combos aren't going to have all that great of representation for a nice piano and snare/cymbal sound.

Your answer mght be a keyboard amp. A lot of those have 2,3 or 4 inputs on them and enough range to do it all fairly well.

Have you considered the Carvin AG100D? I don't want to be sales pitch guy, but this may suite your needs. I have one and it offers up a good bass tone while being essentially a portable PA. It combines 100w through a single 12" with a bullet tweeter and reproduces my iPod nicely. It has 3 independent chanels with their own active EQ, dual effects processors built in, and a global graphic EQ.

There is also an extension speaker available, and both the combo and speaker cab can be pole mounted. I know a husband and wife duo that does the coffee shop thing (dual vox + Ac guitar) with this set up and they love it. Oh and you can select from about 7 or 8 different vinyl finishes as well if you care about that sort of thing.

What I'm trying to say up there is a lot of small PA systems aren't going to have enough booty for a good bass and kick sound without adding a small subwoofer to them and a lot of bass combos aren't going to have all that great of representation for a nice piano and snare/cymbal sound.

Your answer mght be a keyboard amp. A lot of those have 2,3 or 4 inputs on them and enough range to do it all fairly well.

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You mean playing bass separate from PA through amp and jam track (+ probably guitar) through PA?

You mean playing bass separate from PA through amp and jam track (+ probably guitar) through PA?

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Possibly.

You mentioned needing aux in on the bass amp to play the jam tracks, so, that got me to thinking of more full range speaker systems that would make those jam tracks sound better than coming through a typical bass combo amp.